A new Catholic progamme of Relationships and Sexuality Education for secondary pupils has received a warm welcome from scientist and former teacher, Dr Niamh Regan, who has been a vocal critic of previous RSE/SPHE programmes.

The Catholic Education Partnership (CEP), working with the Irish Bishops’ Conference, launched Living Love Senior, a new Leaving Cert SPHE/RSE programme for Catholic post-primary schools, in September 2026. ‘SPHE’ stands for ‘Social. Personal and Health Education’.

Developed specifically, but not exclusively, for Catholic schools, it meets the requirements of the new SPHE curriculum specification and is true to the Catholic ethos.

Reviewing it in Gript, Dr Regan, said its account of the human person is “biologically, factually, spiritually and religiously true. This programme is honest, respectful and worthy of the teenagers in our schools”.

She added: “I have a zero-tolerance approach to current SPHE offerings and have exercised my right to opt out for reasons numerous enough to fill a thesis, never mind an article. But even for someone like me, Living Love Senior is acceptable. I would not need to opt out of this”.